A wind turbine comprises a rotor, a nacelle and a tower. The rotor is rotatable connected to the nacelle and the nacelle is connected rotatable to the tower.
Parts of the wind turbine are prefabricated and are then transported to the installation site of the wind turbine. At the installation site the prefabricated parts of the wind turbine are connected to build a wind turbine.
The tower of the wind turbine is prefabricated in segments. The segments are transported to the installation site and are there connected to form the tower of the wind turbine.
Nowadays, wind turbine towers are more than 60 m high, often more than 90 m. They have a circular crosscut and have a diameter of more than three meters, and are made of steel. For transportation and installation a tower is segmented into several segments. The segments comprise means for connection at their ends, for example, flanges, to connect the tower segments to each other during installation.
The wind turbine tower segments are stored and transported in a horizontal orientation, thus in a lying manner.
Due to gravity, the horizontally oriented tower segments tend to deform in a way that the circular crosscut ovalizes. It is therefore known to support the tower segment at the flanges in a vertical direction to avoid the deformation.
WO 2013/117182 A1 describes a method for handling tower sections for a tower, in particular a wind power plant, wherein the finished tower sections are at least stored, transported and sequentially set up at least partially one on top of another. The tower sections are each already equipped on their ends with a handling device during or after their completion. Then the finished tower sections are coupled to the load-bearing equipment of transport means using the handling device with unchanged linkage thereof on the tower section and then the tower sections are brought in the horizontal position to the location of their erection. The tower sections transported to the erection location are then brought to a vertical position by means of the handling device with unchanged linkage thereof on the tower section by means of at least one lifting device.
This shows the disadvantage that the tower segment is attached to the frame in the shape it already acquired. A tower segment in a horizontal orientation deforms in an elastic deformation as soon as it reaches this orientation. The tower segment is then connected to the transportation frame. Thus, the tower segment is stored and transported in a slightly elastically deformed shape.
This leads to problems during transportation. The tower segment in its slightly elastically deformed shape is connected to a rigid transportation frame. Due to changing forces during transportation, the tower segment varies its elastic deformation, whereby the connection means between the tower segment and the transportation frame might be damaged.
Embodiments of the invention provide a transportation frame that preserves the tower segment in its original shape.